Are there any downsides to peer review?

Sometimes, an article gets reviewed by someone who is unqualified to properly evaluate the material. Sometimes, the reviewer may not like the ideas presented in the article-or the author of the article. Sometimes, different reviewers give very different evaluations of the same article for these reasons. When that happens, an ethical editor will seek out other experts to review the work but they may also simply decide to reject the article. These flaws in the peer review process lead some people to believe that it is time to get rid of the system. However, no one has of yet proposed a truly viable alternative to peer review that would avoid the pitfalls of the peer review process while working at least as well to guarantee academic excellence.